Stop the presses...

Stop the presses!!  I made Basil Burgers without burning the outside of them!!  Oh, Marie would be so very proud!  They were not burned/blackened and did not fall apart!!!!

I am babysitting/child-sitting again, four days this time.  Perish the thought!

The last time his mother made things really easy for me by bringing all heat-up meals for her son.  This time, I wanted him to eat more healthily whilst under my care, instead of the easy way out.  So, she brought me ingredients.  Tonight I made the basil burgers and Oven Baked Home Fries.  My charge was rather less enthusiastic about my cooking, but he ate a whole (bun-less) burger and two heaping helpings of the fries, all the while making appreciative comments on the fries!  Yep, the cockles of my heart are warm.

The day was inordinately long and difficult at parts, but much good happened.

Even though it took a total 16 phone calls, I was able to schedule having the front yard marked for digging.  You see, every time I dialed 811, I was directed to the Illinois utilities digging notification.    I kept being told that I must be near Illinois—must be bouncing off a cell tower in Illinois—to be directed there.  I kept saying that I was in Fort Wayne, hours away from the Illinois border.  I called 311, which is information here and kept being told to dial 811.  Finally, I would be switched to a message that had a number, an 800 number, for the Indiana utilities digging notification.    Because I cannot hold things in my mind, I had to re-dial 10 times in order to try and capture the 800 number I was supposed to call.

Then, I started the process of requesting to have my yard marked and discovered that I had to know my township.  I said that I thought it was Fort Wayne.  But the operator said there was no Fort Wayne township and nothing near "Fort Wayne" in the list of townships for Allen County.  She told me to dial 311 for that information.

Yes, I started weeping in frustration.

When I dialed 311, I told that operator that I was frustrated and upset, but not with her and asked her to be patient with me.  I told her about my brain not working so well.  She was kind and asked what I needed.  I told her about my problem getting through to the Indiana utilities digging notification center when I dialed 811 and then all the calls and that I now needed to know my township.  Well, I sobbed that last bit.

I will admit that I was a bit perturbed when the 311 operator told me that she could connect me directly to the Indiana center (why didn't the very first 311 operator just connect me???), but I focused on how, prior to connecting me, the operator ran down the entire list of questions so that I would be ready for the center operator.  She also, as we were speaking, sent out an email reminding staff that folk who dial 811 from cell phones can be misdirected and to offer the 800 number to those who called for their yards to be marked.  Once I was connected, I finally got an appointment and a confirmation number.

My township?  Wayne.  Yep, that is nowhere near "Fort Wayne."  SIGH.

In between my charge's mother dropping off all his things and all those ingredients and fetching him from school, Marie picked me up to go to Fresh Market to round off the purchases for our Thanksgiving on Saturday.  Yes!  They were visiting folk on Thanksgiving and ended up at Ruby Tuesdays or Applebee's or something like that.  We were both lamenting about a lack of turkey and gravy and Marie offered to have a Thanksgiving with me!!  With me!!!!

Of course, neither of us have cooked for a Thanksgiving.  Marie is tackling the turkey, though I chose the recipe (a roasted garlic and butter sort of approach, with lemon and rosemary thrown in for good measure).  I'm to do the stuffing, though I have yet to settle on a recipe.  I did be so rash as to ask Sandra to borrow her slow cooker since I want to use my best friend's husband's recipe.  But me and slow cookers ...  we parted ways for good reason.  Marie is doing the rolls.  Being an avowed non-lover of green bean casserole, I suggested we try broccoli patties (cheese and panko bread crumbs) instead.  We also have asparagus for some portion of the meal.  I want to do garlic mashed red potatoes.  Marie wanted a pecan pie, but her grandmother, who is the best maker of pecan pies alive, will being making her one at Christmas, so I believe we are going to have Double Chocolate Dr Pepper Cake.

Part of what we got today were things for my idea of sustenance.  You know, we shall be cooking together for hours and hours and so we need a wide variety of appetizers ... and at least a couple of bottles of wine.  We bought brie, smoked gouda with bacon, goats milk cheese, prosciutto, and sweet potatoes.  I want to do some sort of sautéed sweet potato, some sort of miniature tartlet, some sort of cheese and crackers, and perhaps something with the asparagus, too.  While we are not yet sure of those appetizers, we are sure we need to be eating our way through the attempt at our very first Thanksgiving.

Me!  A Thanksgiving with others!  A feast with others and a chance to drag out the china, silver, and crystal of my ancestors.

At Fresh Market, Marie pushed me in a wheel chair shopping cart, because she knew I had a much longer day still to navigate.  She also rode with me to pick up my charge and drop him off at catechesis before going back home so she could unload the groceries.  After catechesis is Jiu Jitsu, which meant a harrowing driving to the great unknown.  My charge was kind enough to enter the address into my Magellan, since I had forgotten to bring it and we had to dart back home after catechesis to fetch my beloved Maggie in order to actually make it to the Great Unknown.

Whilst he was being all active, I went over to Goodyear and had the inspection on my rather neglected Highlander.  The end result of that assessment was better than I feared, but still a heart-stopping $649.  Well, it will be that on Friday when the work is done.  Essentially, all the things that need to be flushed and filled and drained and filled and stripped and such are being done, all the things that come at miles 60,000, 65,000, and 70,000, plus an alignment.  Much to my surprise, the belts and hoses are still rather good.  The manager sent me an email reminder of the appointment, but he put into his calendar a reminder for me to change my oil twice a year and to have the tires rotated once a year.  Then he entered the same into my calendar for me.  When I have the tires done, I can have another inspection done, bringing in the booklet to see what is needed once (if) I reach 75,000.  The rotation and inspections will be free.  The kindest part was that all the explaining and paperwork was done whilst I was in the waiting area so there was less standing for me and, again, they pulled my car up right to the front door.  Despite the missed inspection the first time, I think I found that car place where you won't be sold farmland in southern Louisiana ... or Alaska, for that matter.

Then it was dart back to Jiu Jitsu to claim my charge and find our way back home.  Back home ... where I launched into basil burgers and oven baked home fries.  And, of course, Babylon 5.  While I started cooking, I got my charge to bathe and get into his pajamas by pointing out that doing so would maximize his Babylon 5 viewing time.  I was rather glad to plop into the GREEN chair whilst we got in our sci-fi fix.  Of course, I was eating my own heaping pile of oven baked home fries.

Tomorrow is the first of two days I must arise before 7:00, in order to:  awake, cajole to dress, feed, and ferry my charge off to school.  Hopefully, at about 8:10, I shall be back in bed to sleep a long, long while.  I shall be resting up for the making of chicken and bacon tacos and a few more Babylon 5 episodes, after ferrying my charge to tutoring and dashing over to the post office to mail that drawing my niece made.  How do parents get up early every day, five days out of seven getting their children ready for school???

On Friday, the second day of impossibly early rising, the ferrying to school shall be followed by dashing over to Goodyear and nervously hope that all the maintenance and repair is accomplished by the time school is over.  Marie is going to help me pass the time with the eating of tasty things and the playing of Rumikub.  She is also taking me to a regular store for cream of tarter, because I cannot find the jar that I thought I still had, and apple juice and balsamic vinegar, both of which I keep forgetting to buy.  [What is cream of tarter?]  Then, back home, more cooking (chalupas), more Babylon 5, and trying to not fret about failing in my cooking part of our Thanksgiving.

Ever so much to do, eh?  I shall probably sleep the week round once everyone leaves on Saturday night.  Maybe even two weeks.

I should note that my already warmed cockles heated up further when my charge observed, whilst watching Babylon 5, that the Narn are similar to the Klingon, both being warrior races.  And he observed that Lennier was changing, sort of how like Spok learned to bend and soften a bit.  He also made a rather pithy comment about the appearance of Babylon 4 and the time flux, but I cannot remember what he said.  Just think, after this, I get to introduce him to Stargate SG1, Farscape, and Andromeda.  Battlestar Galactica will have to wait until he is older.  I suppose someone else will have to do that introduction.  SNIF.  SNIF.

I briefly entertained the notion of putting off getting new glasses with all this car maintenance (5 years worth all crammed into one calendar week).  However, in the span of a very short while, three folk pointed out just how much I need glasses.  Of course, it could be my brain, but there is a marked difference when I am fatigued and things are all blurry or doubled and just not being able to see things clearly.  So, one of the things I squeezed in today was also to set up my appointment.  I was a tad worried the eye doctor who was versed in neurological and autoimmune diseases' impact on vision might not still be at the vision center.  [Such a find he was!]  But, never fear, I am all scheduled with him, 3 days earlier than planned, at 3:30 on the 27th.

One last bit of goodness was that I remembered that my charge's mother said he has a blanket he likes to use at home, even sleeping atop his bedding curled up beneath it.  So, I dug through the quilts in the chest at the end of my bed and found one that he could use.  He spent the evening wrapped up in it and asked, very sweetly, if he could take it up to his bedroom.  [Yes, more cockles warming.]

Not failing at child-sitting last time is not going to be a one-off ... if I have anything to say about it.


Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.